Light moment: Karisma (Tora Sudiro) watches over Bisma (Bisma Karisma) as the latter learns to enjoy his new life as a university student.

A new film by Charles Gozali is a combo of a teen idol, a heartwarming story and a decent execution that makes Juara (Champion) a pleasant choice of entertainment.

It was evident from the start that the film was made for Bisma Karisma, a member of the dancing and singing boyband SMASH, who has a horde of loyal fans, although the group has been on hiatus for a few years.

The character in the film was named after him, while the father character, played by Tora Sudiro, got his last name Karisma. Bisma practically projected his own image of a nice, charming boy in portraying the character.

But not as expected from star-system filmmaking, there was no face-time exploitation as Bisma only looked his usual in the early scenes. From there to the end, he was wearing the scars and bruises he got in fights.

Juara is a teen drama that is combined with action and comedy — relax, no slapstick here — portraying the grim issues of dog fighting, bullying and violent dating as well a love story that surpasses space and time.

Bisma started his first day at a university being the target of a group of seniors for being late and for stealing a kiss from Bella (Anjani Dina). He has a crush on the older girl only to find out later that she was the girlfriend of one of the seniors.

His mother, Sarah (Cut Mini Teo), who sells bakmi (noodle soup) during the day and opens a stall in the house for the evening, consoled her son by giving out free bakmi to all students so that they wouldn’t bother Bisma anymore. She preferred to take that amicable resolution than to allow her son to learn martial arts to defend himself.

Unfortunately, it made things worse for him because his seniors, Attar, Egi and Boy (convincingly played by Ciccio Manassero, Qausar Harta Yudana and Arthur Stefano) used his family situation to oppress him more.

In another encounter with the seniors, Bisma, to his surprise, got his power under pressure and managed to beat them, although it put him into another tight situation with a fight gambling boss (Ronny P. Tjandra) and his right-hand man Kobar (Cecep Arif Rahman).

The reason Sarah declined Bisma’s request to practice silat was related to her hatred of her husband, a silat athlete, who didn’t come home even to see his newborn, not knowing that Karisma had taken care of the family his own way, the champion way.

While elements of drama, action and comedy shared the same portion in the movie, Charles Gozali, who also wrote the script, seemed to have given a bigger attention to the fight scenes by adding on visual effects a la Hong Kong blockbusters.

The 106-minute duration was a bit long, but scene-stealer Mo Sidik made it endurable. The stand-up comedian played Sarah’s assistant in the stall and a closer substitute to a brother for Bisma.

Either when he was in the foreground or on the far end of the screen busy with something, it was definitely not the size of his body that seized the attention of the viewers during the media screening on Thursday.

Tora’s acting as a melancholy fighter was convincing, an upgrade from his usual when you could always tell that he was just acting.

As the most senior actor, Cut Mini pulled off her role as single parent and entrepreneur who dealt with life’s problems by laughing them off.

The only time she lost it was when she used formal Indonesian while ranting at Bisma, although throughout the film Sarah speaks in a Sundanese accent.

Bisma — who also lent his voice for the soundtrack — and Anjani showed decent performances, but they still have a long way to go to call themselves good actors.

The story was easy to follow with a nice distinction between the past and the present with surprises that came right at the moment you felt another cliché was coming.

Out in theaters on April 14, Juara was more than a service to Bisma fans. With its depth of a story, it’s a rollercoaster of emotions teenagers and adults could share together.

— Photo Courtesy of MagMA Entertainment

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